In Secret, Court Vastly Broadens Powers of N.S.A. ("almost a parallel Supreme Court")
Source: New York TImes
In Secret, Court Vastly Broadens Powers of N.S.A.
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: July 6, 2013 10 Comments
WASHINGTON In more than a dozen classified rulings, the nations surveillance court has created a secret body of law giving the National Security Agency the power to amass vast collections of data on Americans while pursuing not only terrorism suspects, but also people possibly involved in nuclear proliferation, espionage and cyberattacks, officials say.
The rulings, some nearly 100 pages long, reveal that the court has taken on a much more expansive role by regularly assessing broad constitutional questions and establishing important judicial precedents, with almost no public scrutiny, according to current and former officials familiar with the courts classified decisions.
The 11-member Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as the FISA court, was once mostly focused on approving case-by-case wiretapping orders. But since major changes in legislation and greater judicial oversight of intelligence operations were instituted six years ago, it has quietly become almost a parallel Supreme Court, serving as the ultimate arbiter on surveillance issues and delivering opinions that will most likely shape intelligence practices for years to come, the officials said.
Last month, a former National Security Agency contractor, Edward J. Snowden, leaked a classified order from the FISA court, which authorized the collection of all phone-tracing data from Verizon business customers. But the courts still-secret decisions go far beyond any single surveillance order, the officials said.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/us/in-secret-court-vastly-broadens-powers-of-nsa.html?hpw
add this (from a couple of days ago):
Chief Justice Roberts Is Awesome Power Behind FISA Court
By Ezra Klein Jul 2, 2013 11:23 AM PT
"The 11 FISA judges, chosen from throughout the federal bench for seven-year terms, are all appointed by the chief justice. In fact, every FISA judge currently serving was appointed by Chief Justice John Roberts, who will continue making such appointments until he retires or dies. FISA judges dont need confirmation -- by Congress or anyone else.
http://www.bloo
mberg.com/news/2013-07-02/chief-justice-roberts-is-awesome-power-behind-fisa-court.html
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
Arctic Dave
(13,812 posts)daleo
(21,317 posts)blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)nineteen50
(1,187 posts)drip. Get it out now.
G_j
(40,367 posts)what will it take?
nineteen50
(1,187 posts)Karl Rove (Neo-con) said in 2008 to Ron Suskind
"Guys like you are in--what we call--'the reality-based community'. You believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." "That's not the way the world really works anymore. We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that realityjudiciously, as you willwe'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors
and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
AZ Progressive
(3,411 posts)The tyranny of the Supreme Court Conservatives continues...
Coyotl
(15,262 posts)warrant46
(2,205 posts)Coyotl
(15,262 posts)Javaman
(62,532 posts)Newsjock
(11,733 posts)Just getting that said before someone comes in here and actually means it. You're welcome.
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts).. "Libertarian leanings", just like Greenwald does not have, yet Naomi Wolf
apparently does actually have, and has had ever since 2008 (same year Obama
was elected ?? hmm??), at which time she hooked up with Lew Rockwell.
Now Wolf is trying to cast suspicion on Snowden as a walking single-handed NSA
"false flag" psyop, while Greenwald is unequivacal in his support for Snowden.
Their are so many layers of irony here it gets mind-boggling; which all
point pretty much in the same direction, i.e. we're slip sliding away, into a
high-tech tyrannical abyss. ... unless enough of us wake up in time to prevent it.
From TruthOut.com:
http://www.truth-out.org/archive/item/88767:naomi-wolf-tea-parties-help-fight-fascism
From Ron Paul's website:
http://www.dailypaul.com/71136/lew-rockwell-interviews-naomi-wolf-turning-libertarian
Celefin
(532 posts)...like, forever.
I mean, star chambers and secret constitutional courts have a long tradition.
And spying has been on this massive scale ever since it began.
Oh, and it's OK. Because everybody does it.
Nothing to see here, I've learned that on DU.
...it was sarcasm.
- Of course you're right to chastise them for it. Because only 100% Pure and Unadulterated True Cynics like me can get away with that kind of statement without having to use one of these:
...so was my post. Should I have used ?
I trust in pure and unadulterated true cynicism. I do.
*bows*
DRoseDARs
(6,810 posts)Mnemosyne
(21,363 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)What is the point?
That deprives them and us all of the benefit of a wide range of input into the processes they oversee.
We are entitled to public trials. Why would a secret court be compatible with the promise of public trials for those accused of crimes?
Is the argument that they do not decide criminal matters?
What pedantry.
We are supposed to be a democracy. Secret courts, regardless their purpose, are not consistent with democratic government.
Secret diplomacy? Yes, when necessary. Secret military preparations? As rarely as possible.
But not secret courts.
Nanjing to Seoul
(2,088 posts)olddad56
(5,732 posts)It is just weird living in this country that has always prided itself on freedom and liberty and then you find out you only have it figuratively.
Alkene
(752 posts)but instead of, "nation's," one might say, Homeland's. As in, Der Homeland.
AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)Judge Reggie Walton (presiding) -- District of Columbia
Judge Rosemary M. Collyer -- District of Columbia
Judge Raymond J. Dearie -- Eastern District of New York
Judge Claire Eagan -- Northern District of Oklahoma
Judge Martin L.C. Feldman -- Eastern District of Louisiana
Judge Thomas Hogan -- District of Columbia
Judge Mary A. McLaughlin -- Eastern District of Pennsylvania
Judge Michael W. Mosman -- District of Oregon
Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV -- District of Massachusetts
Judge Susan Webber Wright -- Eastern District of Arkansas
Judge James Zagel -- Northern District of Illinois
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Court
Do they have to be exceptional judges? Or just judges that are willing to disregard the Fourth Amendment and rubber stamp whatever is put in front of them?
elehhhhna
(32,076 posts)had a mess on their hands if they found otherwise? Only looked at two bios and that's what I found.
we're screwn.
Major Hogwash
(17,656 posts)That was supposed to be a secret!!
AzDar
(14,023 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)This isn't justice, this isn't law, this isn't democracy, this is BULLSHIT!
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)K&R
Coyotl
(15,262 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)B.F.E.E.
John Roberts was there helpin' Smirko steal Florida in 2000. Money's trumped peace Big Time ever since.
ucrdem
(15,512 posts)daleo
(21,317 posts)But they can say and do plenty with a few words.
ucrdem
(15,512 posts)JoeyT
(6,785 posts)The rulings are nearly 100 pages long. Not nearly 100 pages of rulings.
You really shouldn't need the difference explained.
bvar22
(39,909 posts)I would go back and delete the last few EMBARRASSING posts
before too many DUers have a chance to read them.
Your *** is hanging out,
and it belongs up there next to Sarah Palin.
No Charge.
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)Did you fail to read the post, or are you deliberately misstating it?
ForgoTheConsequence
(4,869 posts)No doubt in my mind.
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)ForgoTheConsequence
(4,869 posts)Drop little pieces of disinformation or canned pre-written smear pieces and take off.
ucrdem
(15,512 posts)You saw right through me.
ForgoTheConsequence
(4,869 posts)?
ucrdem
(15,512 posts)ForgoTheConsequence
(4,869 posts)Typical.
MNBrewer
(8,462 posts)Dyedinthewoolliberal
(15,586 posts)Things just keep getting curiouser and curiouser......
Gin
(7,212 posts)Each day new ways of spying on all of us are exposed.....
.I don't like it....and it will only get worse....but....what can we do about it?
These programs have layers so even if they say it will stop, there is no doubt it will continue..as in TIA...it never went away...just underground and spread its tentacles to all of us everywhere.
What can we citizens do about this?
Gin
Uncle Joe
(58,404 posts)Thanks for the thread, kpete.
Yo_Mama
(8,303 posts)Which never envisioned such an obscured concentration of power, and indeed was written to prevent it.
But we have it anyway, and the only way to change this is to lobby Congress. This is shameful.
Response to kpete (Original post)
Name removed Message auto-removed
allin99
(894 posts)You know it's bad when officials say it's even beyond recent revelations....
wtf do we do about this?
cstanleytech
(26,317 posts)to the FISA court because if they required it with this congress controlled by the republicans you wont get anyone confirmed but on the other hand I really dont like that its Roberts and Roberts alone whos appointing them.
Perhaps they should change it so 3 are appointed by the Chief Justice for 7 years, 3 appointed by congress for 6 years, 3 from the senate for 5 years and 2 by the president for 4 years.
That way no one branch has to much control over the FISA courts.
bvar22
(39,909 posts)<sigh>
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)Dear Dog, this gets worse every day.
Javaman
(62,532 posts)You would see the frightening similarities.
We aren't quite at that point just yet, but but we are getting there.
in the book there was a think called "article 58" which was a blanket "law" that allowed the soviet authorities to jail you for just about anything they wanted and then used it as an excuse for something you did against the soviet state.
leading to a slippery slope? Ha, that's a laugh, we are on our stomachs sliding head first into the pit, all the while, the people of this nation are kept divided and the talking heads on the news discuss semantics while the politics take away our rights at the behest of their corporate masters.
I'm middle aged, I'll live experience some of the full on effect, but the next generation, who still have a echo of a faded image of what our actual freedoms are, will be thumbed down so that their children won't know any difference.
treestar
(82,383 posts)Obviously it is not completely secret.
http://www.lawfareblog.com/2013/06/dni-statement-on-facts-on-the-collection-of-intelligence-pursuant-to-section-702-of-the-foreign-intelligence-surveillance-act/
Some information on what oversight there is.
Of course we could abolish the FISA and go back to the President doing whatever he/she wants, like in Nixon's day.